


A Fool's Flight

by Felicity_The_Cat



Category: Sly Cooper (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Canonical Character Death, Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-05 17:27:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18833326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Felicity_The_Cat/pseuds/Felicity_The_Cat
Summary: An alternate version of Arpeggio's death.Why didn't Neyla throw him off the blimp to his death?





	A Fool's Flight

So this is where it had brought him. All his scheming, research and hard work. All the betrayal and time spent waiting for the right pieces to fall into place. It was all worth it.

Before the parrot stood his new body. Silver and shining, strong and powerful.

The owl’s eyes were dead and lifeless along with the rest of the robot. It was almost as if it was calling to him; welcoming him to crawl inside and taste the power it offered; the power he could so easily possess, clutching in his claws. Arpeggio looked over at Sly, having missed some of what the raccoon was frantically saying. None of it mattered to him, really.

 

Sly Cooper was many things. He was fast and agile, sneaky and cunning. One thing he wasn’t was someone who could grasp such big things. Arpeggio didn’t care what the effects of him taking that body would be; he really didn’t. All his life he had been rendered flightless; left to live his days out as a defect on the ground. He wanted to soar across the sky, feeling the wind gliding across his back and ruffling his feathers up. He _would_ fly. That was all he had ever dreamt of ever since he was a child. Even if the universe was against him, he had found a way to overcome the world’s unjust cruelty towards him. He would be immortal; flying through the skies forever without a care. It would be just him and Neyla. Nothing else mattered.

They would be an unstoppable duo. Nobody would stand a chance against them once Arpeggio stepped inside of that old mechanical bird. Not the Cooper gang, not Interpol, no force could bring them down.

 

Neyla watched as Sly and Arpeggio rambled on. She shifted her weight, watching them with a keen eye. She felt her body tense. The time was near. She was close, so … very close.

“The northern Lights!” Sly exclaimed in horror. Neyla scoffed.

“You’ve been collecting Northern Light energy so you could hypnotize everyone beneath the blimp!” Arpeggio smiled and nodded, ruffling his feathers a bit in excitement.

“Ahh,” The parrot practically purred, filling Sly with disgust.

“-Hypnotize those who’d eaten food covered in illegal spice!  Thank goodness for Dimitri, through his nightclub he got the whole city to consume the spice.”

“You’re going to Paris to unleash a hypnotic light show of hate… That’s outlandishly cruel.”

Sly spat with distaste, flattening his ears in both horror and anger.

“Cruel, perhaps, but necessary to give Clockwerk his spark of immortality! Ah… well, my new body awaits me.” Arpeggio turned to face the tigress. She smiled at him; grinning like a devil.

“Be a dear, Neyla and keep him covered. Ta-Ta!”

 

As Arpeggio turned to face his new body once again, his heart fluttered in excitement.

Finally. Nobody would be able to disrespect him ever again. His future was only a few feet away when- _CRACK!_ The sound of a whip filled the air and Arpeggio was sent crashing to the ground.

He was alarmed at first, expecting to see Sly when he turned to face his attacker.

Instead of an enemy, there stood his friend. His best friend.

His heart sunk.

 

“Stupid Arpeggio…” Neyla chuckled coldly. Her voice alone was enough to send chills through the bird’s body. He stared, frozen in horror and heartbreak. Neyla stood, towering over him.

“I double crossed the Cooper gang, Interpol and Carmelita… What made you think I wouldn’t do the same to you?” Neyla took a step away from him and a step closer to Clockwerk.

She smiled wide, showing off her fangs to the parrot crumpled on the floor. He reached his wing out toward her initially as if he was trying to grab her and make her stay.

_Don’t leave. Don’t do this to me._

 

Neyla turned and dashed for the robotic bird, diving into his mouth without a second thought.

Arpeggio pulled himself up, now sitting in shock as the mouth of the bird closed.

_No. None of this was supposed to happen. Not like this._

It took him a moment to gather his voice and he honestly felt like throwing up.

“This is preposterous…” He said, shaking his head in disbelief as he took a few small steps towards CLockwerk- or Neyla, rather.

“You’re my protege… Not the next candidate for my immortality.”

Sly took a step back, knowing when to back away from someone _that_ much bigger and stronger than him. Neyla now had control of that body and Sly knew from experience what it was capable of. He watched in silence as Arpeggio took another few steps closer to Neyla.

A look of sadness was plastered to the little parrot’s face.

“I demand you exit the Clockwerk frame or…” Arpeggio shrunk in on himself, realizing now that in his grief he hadn’t fully realized how close he had gotten to Neyla. She towered over him, staring down at him with her big, yellow eyes. Fear set in and Arpeggio took several staggering steps backward, trying to distance himself as far away from Neyla as he could.

“Or….” Arpeggio gasped as Neyla sprung towards him and snatched him up in her talons.

 

Sly rushed out of the way as Neyla pushed herself off the ground, flapping her huge, metal wings. As Neyla crashed through the window, shattered glass was sent through the air, shimmering in the dim light that the blimp had to offer. Sly watched in horror as Neyla flew out of the blimp and into the night sky, free and able to go wherever she pleased. As she flew away from the small blimp, she looked down at Arpeggio in her claws. The parrot was breathing heavily, panicking as the wind blew harshly against his feathers. He stared up into Neyla’s eyes as he struggled to breath, having trouble doing so thanks to her death grip around him.

“W-Why?” He managed to choke out. His heart had already shattered inside of his chest.

His best and only friend had betrayed him and stolen all of his hopes and dreams right out from under him. He was so close. If he had only acted quicker and gotten inside of Clockwerk…

Why had he trusted Neyla? What did he ever do to deserve this fate?

They had been friends for years. He shared all of his secrets and dreams with her throughout the years and he thought she had done the same. Was anything she ever told him true?

 

“Neyla…” He whined out pathetically, nearly in tears as she raised her head back up.

Arpeggio glanced back, watching as his blimp drifted further and further away. When it was nearly out of sight, Neyla stopped moving away from it. She hovered in place and looked back down at him.

“You want to fly, bird?” She asked. Arpeggio trembled.

“Fly, bird! Fly!” She exclaimed as she threw him, flinging him into the night sky.

She remained in place, watching as he fell for a moment before turning and flying back towards _her blimp_.

 

As Arpeggio fell, he began to cry. He knew his death was eminent and there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop it. As tears rolled down his face, he spread out his wings. They did nothing to keep him from plummeting to his death but he took comfort in it nonetheless.

He closed his eyes tight and felt the wind flow through his feathers. He leaned forward, feeling the cold night air rush past him as he descended. His heartache from his betrayal was forgotten in that moment and he smiled softly.

_Maybe this is what it felt like to fly._

_No._

_He was flying._

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea for quite a while now. Finally got around to writing it.  
> Poor birb man.


End file.
